HR Management Assignment Report writing help online study :: Diversity management description at Rabobank – its implementation
Question asked??
Write a report on diversity at Rabobank Nederland??
Solution the question frames is::
Introduction
Diversity management has become a key issue among organizations and it is a new domain in the field of human resource management. It has become an important as well as a powerful management tool that makes teams of organizations flexible, innovative and more inclined towards attaining goals and objectives of the organization. Diversity can be considered as existence of many unique and diverse individuals at the workplace, marketplace and community in the form of men and women from varying and diverse cultures, lifestyles, backgrounds, ethnic groups, generations, etc. However, managing diversity at the workplace is not an easy task and requires hard core commitment and well planned strategy for managing diversity, which has now become one of the business issues ( Otike et al 2011)
The report analyzes the diversity management issues in the largest provider of financial services in the Dutch market i.e. Rabobank Nederland of Rabobank Group. There is analysis of current diversity management practices and issues at the organization, and development of implementation plan including diversity policy and associated strategies for aligning organizational values to business values.
Rabobank Nederland: An overview
Rabobank Inc. is the largest financial service provider in The Netherlands comprising of a vast network chain of 1500 local banks spread throughout the country. It is the third largest financial institution in the Dutch market coming after ABN AMRO and ING bank. The structure of the bank is unique. It has cooperative structure that allows any customer to become a member of the bank. It has no shareholders who expect dividend on their respective investments in the bank. The central office of the bank set policy standards and procedures for the whole bank (Annual report 2011 Rabobank Group 2011).
All activities of human resource department are centralized and local offices have to just decide what kind of personnel and staff they need for their operations. Other HRM practices are common to all local banks of Rabobank. Most of the policy issues are determined by the boards of the local banks. The central Rabobank Nederland has to work on realization and execution of these broad policies. Moreover, there are 41000 employees working for the bank including both the central office and the local banks (Annual report 2011 Rabobank Group 2011).
Current diversity practices at Rabobank
Rabobank witnessed demographic changes in the country due to increasing population of more and more ethnic minority workgroups. The demographic condition of the labour market of Netherlands has changed in last two decades. Ethnic minorities live in large and medium sized cities of the country and comprises of almost 20% of the total population of the country. As Rabobank has a socially responsible character due to its cooperative structure, it framed diversity policy for new customers and new personnel owing to demographic changes. The bank established a Diversity Office for development of strategies at organizational and corporate level for ethnic minorities of Netherlands (Subeliani and Tsogas 2005).
As a part of the diversity policy, Diversity Network has been set by the office that comprises of employees of the bank from all the local banks throughout the country. They are from different local branches, hierarchy levels, and ethnic groups. They gather twice a year to discuss upon the diversity issues related to achievements, ongoing projects and future policies. The company goes for targeted labour market campaigns for bringing in ethnic minority employees. The company believes that practicing intercultural management can attract a large number of customers that belong to ethnic minorities in the population of the country as their purchasing power is also rising to a significant level (Subeliani and Tsogas 2005).
There is training of recruitment and selection specialists on the issue of cultural sensitivity so that the proportion and role of cultural factors can be reduced in the process of recruitment and selection. Along with this, the candidates applying for the job in the bank can choose between the traditional and cultural free tests (Annual report 2011 Rabobank Group 2011).
Issues in current diversity practices
Although Rabobank has implemented diversity management practices to include ethnic minority employees in the organization, yet there is a large difference in the ratio of ethnically diverse workforce at the centre office and at other local bank offices of the organization. The reason for this difference can be attributed to the cooperative structure of the bank. Due to its cooperative structure, local Rabobanks have a certain level of autonomy which the central office cannot challenge. A significantly large number of local Rabobanks are not willing to have a diversified workforce in their offices.
A major proportion of the ethnic minority employees can be found in large cities of the country where the concentration of these people is higher in the population as well. There is disproportionate employment of minority people throughout the branches of the bank. In local banks, the proportion is 3.4% which is very low in comparison to the proportion in middle cities’ workforce for the bank which is 24% (Rabobank Case Study 2011).
Moreover, most of the multiculturalism can be seen at lower level jobs. There is no minority person as a manager in Rabobank. There is an apparent glass ceiling for ethnic workforce and they have zero chance of promotion to higher hierarchical levels. In management development circles, there are no ethnically diverse employees. Senior managers at Rabobank hold the opinion that if ethnically diverse employees are promoted to managerial positions, they would face severe pressures from their compatriots (Subeliani and Tsogas 2005).
Multiculturalism has been implemented in banks offices situated in middle and large cities for catering to the needs of minority groups’ customers. Local Rabobanks in small towns and rural areas have very less number of ethnic workforces.
Non-alignment of organizational philosophy and diversity procedures
The Rabobank generally promotes multiculturalism and has specific sites on its intranet dedicated to expressing cultural images. The policy of the company is to increase tolerance for religious and cultural differences at the organizational workplace. However, bringing ethic people in the organization is not sufficient. Managers do not know much about multiculturalism and diversity, which often leads to conflicts.
Stakeholder issues and requirements
Employees are one of the major stakeholders of any organization. The diversity policy of the Rabobank is focused on including multiculturalism and diversity in its operations so as to include large number of diverse and ethnic workforce, and serve the increasing number of ethnically diverse population in Netherlands. However, employees at the bank have issues that there is promotion of diversity only at the lower level jobs. At the managerial level, there is no multiculturalism. Managers do not understand cultural differences effectively (Rabobank Case Study 2011).
The concept of diversity management has only been used in marketing and selling of the financial products of the company to ethnic groups. Diversity management lacks in problem solving procedures, innovation and teambuilding. There is requirement of viewing diversity as an all-inclusive term and to inculcate the very concept in the values, objectives and management style of all local banks of Rabobank in Netherlands.
Implementation of diversity policy
The new diversity policy of Rabobank could be establishment of a diversified culture of which all the local banks are a part and include the concept of managing diversity at corporate level, thus involving innovation, problem solving and teamwork into its area of effectiveness. The diversity policy must go beyond inclusion of just cultural or ethic heterogeneity (Diversity & Inclusion Framework & Implementation Plan 2011).
The objectives of the diversity policy are: to have a workforce that is the true representation of the community at all levels and local banks of the organization; it is not enough to just include people from ethnically diverse backgrounds, it is required to use their experience and views to create inclusive programs and services; creation of policies, programmes and services that meet the diverse needs of those whom the organization serve.
Associated procedures
For attaining the objective of a workforce that is a true reflection of the community, associated procedures include undertaking regular employee survey, review of recruitment, retention and development practices in order to ensure that barriers are identified and addressed; creation of mentoring opportunities all across the bank so as to train managers about cultural sensitivity; and creation of internship opportunities for employees at all levels, and so on. For attaining and retaining talented workforce, development of respectful work policy for all local banks, establishment of procedures for addressing violation of these policies, and implementation of communication, training and education program for managers as well as executives, will serve the purpose (Karsten 2006).
Recruitment and selection procedures are adequate for managing diversity. In order to make retention and promotion strong at the diversity front, there should be monitoring of career progressions of all employees for measuring their representation level in the organization (Diversity & Inclusion Framework & Implementation Plan 2011). In regards to the promotionstrategy, inclusion of diversity components syllabi for promotion exam, courses, interview board training and Management Development Council programmes for middle level as well as lower level employees, can serve the purpose.
At the initial level, there should be establishment of a diversity support officer in the Diversity Office on a part time basis for supporting the local bank staff on diversity related issues. Eventually, the role will be incorporated in the form of a core responsibility within all management, supervisory and executive level functions of the organization including local banks of the organization throughout the country (Karsten 2006).
Implementation plan
Full support of top management and effective leadership is desirable for including diversity as an all inclusive concept. The goal and vision of top management should get reflected in HRM policies and procedures (Price and Nelson 2010). As HRM policies are framed at the centre office of Rabobank, it is an effective way to compel all local banks to understand the significance of including and managing diversity. Diversity training courses organized by HRM department should include both senior and line mangers. Employees from different local banks and other departments should also be included in the training program.
The branch head must undergo some training for understanding how to leverage diversity of its workforce. For enhancing teamwork effectiveness under diversity management, existing diversity data should be used for structuring teams. Teams should have a certain mix of employees, functional roles, language skills, etc. Desired working outcomes should be set with diversity rationale. Team processes should be assessed by the supervisor. Proper communication and conflict management training should be given, and rewards should be given at the team level (Halverson and Tirmizi 2008).
Review diversity policy
Long term sustainability in diversity management can be attained by holding managers responsible and accountable for integration of diversity within all operations and functions of business. There should be evaluation of managers on the basis of their ability to attain the goals of diversity. Changes at individual and organizational level should be evaluated by multiple sources and methods, such as review of performance by diverse work teams, analyzing recruitment and selection record, analyzing how many participants were present in training courses, and so on. Barriers should be identified for further setting on the efforts for diversity inclusion (Paludi 2012). The findings should be communicated throughout the organization for creating knowledge and awareness about diversity. Even a slight progress should be acknowledged and celebrated throughout the organization.
Conclusion
Diversity management is an important aspect of HRM which is required to be handled with dedication and commitment from the top management level of an organization. Managing diversity leads to creation of competitive advantage if diversity is considered as an all-inclusive concept in the organization. Rabobank Nederland focused on economic perspective rather than moral perspective for including ethnic minority groups in their workforce. It led to increase in customers of the organization belonging to ethnic minority groups rather than inclusion of these groups as a workforce in all local banks of the organization. The suggested diversity policy for Rabobank includes implementation of diversity at all the functions and levels of the organization so as to enhance teamwork and attain organizational goals and objectives.
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